The narrator of this novel is no less than Miguel de Cervantes, the creator of Don Quixote. Marlowe mixes the facts of the life of Cervantes with adventures resembling those of the knight of La Mancha. Through illusion and reality, he paints a passionate ... Read More

The narrator of this novel is no less than Miguel de Cervantes, the creator of Don Quixote. Marlowe mixes the facts of the life of Cervantes with adventures resembling those of the knight of La Mancha. Through illusion and reality, he paints a passionate portrait of medieval Europe and North Africa in the 16th and 17th centuries when Islam, Judaism, and Christianity coexisted in fertile and chaotic, sometimes savage tension. In this imaginative tour-de-force, Marlowe convincingly speaks in the voice of Cervantes, who at one stage looks into the future to witheringly mock the literary critics who judge his work.